Reality Clue
by Bert-the-farting-hippo
Summary: Discontinued, enjoy my very first fanfic. I promise I've gotten better!
1. The Sandman doesnt visit feds

Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS. If I did McGee would be the star of the show, and Abby's stuffed Hippo (Bert) would be considered a major cast member.

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Tony stalked into the Bullpen, and plopped down at his desk without giving anyone a 'hello'.

"Late night?" Ziva asked, not really caring about the answer.

"No." He huffed.

"Let me guess DiNozzo, Nightmare."

Tony mumbled something that sounded like "Yeah, boss."

Abby followed Gibbs into the Bullpen. After all, there was nothing to do today. "Poor Tony. It wasn't about the vampire in your canopy bed was it?" Abby smirked. Tony had claimed before that his mother forced him to have a canopy bed as a child, that he was certain had a vampire in the canopy of it.

I, despite having my own horrible nights' sleep had to laugh a little at this, only to be hit in the head moments later with a paper ball. It seemed like no one had gotten sleep last night.

------An hour earlier------- 

Ziva was stomping into the Bullpen, saying loudly to me, who trailed behind her. "Who? Tell me McGee, who has a dog-wild party on a Monday night?"

I responded, "Uh, your neighbors, and it's 'Hog-wild' Ziva." She rolled her eyes.

I, in turn had been kept awake all night by a horrible stomachache I had from the Caf-pow! Abby dumped down my throat. I seriously hoped no one was feeling generous today, because yesterday Abby had a refrigerator full of Caf-pow! Since just about everyone she knew at NCIS decided to bring her one. That had lead to Abby claiming she needed to get rid of all this Caf-pow! and forcing about three cups full of the stuff down my throat.

Gibbs was already at his desk when McGee and Ziva arrived. He'd been worrying all night about something none of us was ever going to find out.

Ducky had come as mad as the elderly man could get, complaining how his mother kept him up all night, and Palmer had the feeling of being watched. I was surprised by how much he sounded like Tony when asked who he thought was watching him, "It's Vicky… I know it is. Seriously, that girl's crazy!"


	2. Telamarketers can sell bad news?

Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN ANYTHING EXCEPT THE BOTTLE OF MOUNTAIN DEW I BOUGHT!

-----_Present_-----

Abby had since gone down to lab, much to my displeasure. Gibbs picked up his phone; I looked up from my desk, curious, listening intently to the conversation.

"Gibbs."

"…."

"No."

"…."

"Yes I'm sure I don't want to buy anything."

"…."

"You do know this is a federal office."

Of course I didn't know what the person on the other line said, but I thought it went a bit like this, "I'm sorry sir I didn't know this was a federal office, I will be sure to have this number removed from our calling list." Boy, was I wrong.

"LISTEN I DON'T WANT TO BUY ANYTHING!"

"…."

"What? Look, this isn't funny, punk. Now you shut up and hang up the phone or I'll have my agents at your house in seconds."

"…."

Gibbs' face dropped, he hissed, "What?"

Standing up, I grabbed my things. I'd been working at NCIS long enough to know this wasn't good. Gibbs motioned for me to sit down and have Abby trace the call. Quickly punching the number one, Abby's phone rang for a second before she picked up, "Abby, Forensics Master, What's up?"

I jumped a bit, "Abby, trace the call on Gibbs' phone." I could see her nodding in my imagination, hardly surprised I knew her that well, after I said that, I heard the faint sound of a keyboard clicking.

Moments later, Gibbs cursed loudly, slamming the phone down. Abby must've heard this through the phone, because she sighed and said, "Sorry, McGee." The people around heard this to, and they all suddenly had something to do and bustled away from the area of the bullpen.

_Uh-oh_ I thought _this couldn't be good._ I dared to ask it, and received a stern glare for it, "What happened Gibbs?" He gave me that glare I mentioned and stormed off saying something about "Finding out if this' true."


	3. Odd things to say when you get bad news

Disclaimer: Umm I own…. A cat… clothes… I OWN AN NCIS FIRST SEASON DVD THINGY… Oh wait…. I got that from netflix… Never mind. I don't own anything.

Authors note: Okay, so I was told to make things longer. I can so totally do that. I just have to make a few tweaks the parts of the story already written on Microsoft word ) I was also told there was a few confusing parts, I'm trying to fix that. So everyone knows, McGee will the first few chapters. Than Gibbs does one short one, then the rest is Ziva. I tell you when there's a prospective switch so don't worry. Oh… and despite what everyone just found out they're all kind of not upset sounding. So I'm just going to say that they're in denial.

Tony gave one of those 'close call' looks, and Ziva looked confused. "So, McGee, you get the address?" Tony tried to break the silence and gave 'I know you didn't but just say something' look and I groaned.

"I wonder what that was about." Ziva gave me a quizzical look; did she seriously think I knew what happened?

"Okay, my top guess, he just found out x-wife number one just ransacked his boat." Tony laughed.

"Don't be stupid Tony. The Starbucks probably got blown up." Ziva smiled.

"No, no. No. No." Tony said each 'No' kind of choppy, "He just found out wife number three had a kid and it's his."

I rolled my eyes, I was thinking something along the lines of, _No, he probably just found out Tony took one of his dates to Gibbs' house instead of his own apartment. Now Gibbs went to have someone ritually pure it._ I didn't say that of course.

Tony said something that no one would repeat. Ziva threw something that hit Tony right in the forehead. She said, "That was disgusting. I wish you'd grow up."

I was about to say something but couldn't because Gibbs came storming into the room, the veins on his neck bulging, eyes flaming, face redder than Abby's lipstick.

Gibbs slammed his fist on to his desk. He let out a long attack of curses. Through it all I managed to get. "Kill… Jenny… Kidnapped…" _Jenny? _I thought _whose name is Je- OH! Director Sheppard…_

"Gibbs," Tony started saying, "What happened, without all the cussing, please? Now what _I_ heard was Director Sheppard kidnapped someone so now you're going to kill her." Gibbs glared, got up, and walked over to Tony. Gibbs' angry form hovered over him and raised his hand. Less than a second later, Tony's head whammed against his desk with a crack.

Ziva and I stood up at the same time. She said something first, "GIBBS? WHAT THE HELL?"

Gibbs ignored her walked back to his desk. Tony lifted his head and groaned. The desk was cracked where his head hit it, and blood spattered the desk. He got up, probably to go see Ducky, but Gibbs glared, and Tony sat back down.

Gibbs spoke, an icy calm in his voice. I'd rather been Tony right then, who later told me he couldn't hear Gibbs through the throbbing in his head than be able to hear the obviously pissed man. "Now, I'll say this so you all can understand." Gibbs surveyed the three of us, me pale as a ghost, Tony holding a tissue to his bleeding head, and Ziva looking uncharacteristically wide eyed and frightened despite trying to mask that.

Gibbs continued in his icy-calm voice, "The director has been kidnapped, and I was the unfortunate person to find out first." My mind flashed back to Gibbs' telemarketer turned anger causing call. "Through a telemarketer call no less. So, let's inform a few people and GET OUR ASSES MOVING!" Gibbs' icy calm turned into the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius, sending all of us, the little villagers of Pompeii scattering to figure things out.

I found myself jogging in place in the elevator, and bursting out of the doors to Abby's lab to explain everything to her. "So what was the phone- Omigawd, McGee are you okay?"

"MCGEE, are you okay?" Abby repeated. I was looking behind Abby my only thoughts, _Wow… she changed the lab around… Huh._ "Okay McGee, I changed the lab around nice of you noticing, now what happened?"

I shook my head to get the random thoughts out, and busted out, "THE DIRECTORS BEEN KIDNAPPED, GIBBS SLAMMED TONY'S HEAD INTO A DESK WICH IS NOW BLEEDING-"

"Wait, Tony's desk is bleeding?"

"I just told you the directors been kidnapped and that's the first thing that comes to mind, and I meant Tony's bleeding."

"Oh… Okay. Continue ranting."

"Well, I'm almost done now but here's the rest, AND GIBBS CAN ONLY BE COMPARED TO THE EXPLOSION OF MOUNT VESUVIOUS."

"Wow… can you imagine how that must've sounded if someone was reading that? Wait? Gibbs exploded?"

"Not literally…" That's when it hit me exactly how crazy everyone here was. "So, Abby…. Should we do something or just stand here?"

Abby's eyes went wide, "Oh, right. 'Director Kidnapping' issues, on it." Abby paused, to think about something. She shook her head a little and walked over to her computer as I walked out of the doors.

"McGee!" Barked Gibbs. _Oh, great. I know that voice, he's dragging me somewhere. _I winced a little without anyone noticing. I seriously did not want to be in a car with Gibbs right now. "Yes. Boss?"

"Go get one of the vans McGee, we're going to the Directors' house." Gibbs barked to me.

"But, but Boss. How are we going to get in?" I whimpered…. _Why do I always whimper_? Gibbs dangled some keys. I sighed, as I walked into the elevator I heard Tony say, "You know it's kind of disturbing he has keys to her house." Then, a sharp whack and "Ow, sorry, Boss…. At least it wasn't as bad as five minutes ago." I couldn't help but smirk a bit.


	4. Fornell's intrusion & Gibbs' Pain

Disclaimer: I should I have just put one in the description, that way I wouldn't have to go through this on every page. Okay, Here it is, If I owned anything, I'd be older than… well what I am right now, and would have a great Dane named Trace.

AU: I'm pretty bad at this stuff. I'm not exactly good in English. I'm good just not, 'Congratulations Rae, you made it into honors English class' good. Oh and remember, I have no beta so… eh. I can't help the Grammar and spelling mistakes, and learning grammar and spelling that would take effort, which is not something I like. Wow… I got a review from _tweeter_ I have their site saved to my favorites! I'm such a happy little human. Oh, and this chapter is a two in one. They where both pretty short, so…

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It was starting to hit me just how big all this was when we pulled up to Director Sheppard's home. Gibbs groaned as he saw Tobias Fornell at her door. The FBI agent had three men struggling to get the door opened. I looked over at Gibbs, "You called Fornell?"

"No. I know who I called and it wasn't _that_ moron… It was other morons."

"Oh, what's with the door?"

"It's reinforced with steel."

"That's... different."

"Yeah." Gibbs grunted and got out of the car. I followed suite. Fornell turned his head when one of his guys jabbed his shoulder. The FBI 'moron' as Gibbs had called him, put his head in his hand and rubbed his temples.

"Gibbs this is an FBI case." The smaller man started arguing.

"No, she's the director of _NCIS_ Now the fact that it starts with an _N_ and there is no _f _or _B_ in it." Gibbs argued back, "Besides, it's _personal_, and I have the keys." Gibbs pushed Fornell's guys away and jammed the key into the lock. A satisfying click was heard, and he slammed the key into the top lock. He opened the door a bit, and signaled for me to get my Sig ready.

I pulled out the gun, and clicked the safety lock off. Gibbs proceeded to open the door the rest of the way. He was expecting someone to be in there because he yelled, "NCIS, COME OUT!" No one. I could see his veins bulge like they had this morning.

Gibbs walked into the house, back pressed against the wall. I pressed my self against the opposite wall. It was a hallway leading into a living room and a set of stairs. Gibbs motioned for Fornell and Me to check upstairs. Surprisingly Fornell agreed, and the FBI agent and me sneaked up the stairs.

Fornell motioned he was going right. I nodded and mouthed the words "I'll go left." I went to the farthest left I could. There was what appeared to be an office. Turning inside I gasped. I couldn't believe it.

I heard a footstep behind me and swung around, fingering my Sig's trigger. "Oh it's you." I said lowering the gun. "You scared me, I guess I'm pretty jumpy right now."

"Yeah. Me to. Is that?"

"Yeah it is." I replied.

He hit me over the head and I woke up thirty-six hours later in the hospital.

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Chapter 5 _(Gibbs is the narrator)_

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I heard the bang as McGee hit the ground upstairs. I ran to the computer room. Fornell was testing McGee's pulse. "Your Probie is fine," Fornell started, "But, Director Sheppard…"

I ran over to Jenny, Her pulse, unlike McGee's was faint, almost untraceable. I sunk on my knees and held her in arms. Jenny's eyes flitted opened. She smiled. Her face had a giant gash, and she'd been shot through the chest. "Jethro." She said almost laughing. "Wow… Imagine this." Her eyes flashed with pain, "I… I never thought it'd end like this."

"It's not ending, you're going to be fine."

"I've thought of you as many thing Jethro, but never a fool, until you said that."

I shook my head a bit, and looked a Fornell, "Don't just stand there get the paramedics in here!"

Fornell raced out of the room, and I heard his feet pounding as he went down the stairs. Jenny shook her head; it obviously pained the gash in her face. "Jethro." Jenny said. I cut her off.

"No. You're not DIEING!" I yelled the last word, trying to convince myself.

"JETHRO!" This shut me up. I didn't want her to yell again, it was hurting her, "Stop being a fool, and accept the fact that I'm about to die. It'll only help you get over it faster." I blinked I couldn't deny that. She was right. She said softly, "I love you." I tried to say the same back, but my voice choked. Then Jenny's heart stopped.

I placed her body on the ground, got up, and stepped back. The paramedics came in then. They took one look at Jenny, and I shook my head. They where to late, but they couldn't have helped anyway. Jenny was right. It was to late when we found her. Now I had to suck it up, and make sure my Probie was okay, and get this solved. I was going to find out who _murdered_ Jenny, and I was going torture them until they died, and laugh at the thought of their body, whoever's corpse it was, rotting in hell.

After all, justice is sweet, but revenge? That's _satisfying_.


	5. Investigation on the Director's Land

Disclaimer: If I owned NCIS the Director _would_ die.

AN: Wowzerz. I didn't expect a single review, but now I have ! That's unexpected. In case any of you where wondering, I don't know how long this will be. I haven't even thought it completely through. I _do_ know who the killer is, and I have a motive, though not the best one… This is going to be a long chapter though! Oh, by the way I'll put this in bold so everyone will see it, **the rest of the chapters are narrated by Ziva, **and for any confusion on the time frame, it's over the summer, but Gibbs never left, because him leaving was just evil…

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It was an hour since Gibbs and McGee left, making me think they had found something. It also left me wondering why Gibbs hadn't called Tony and Me to come, yet. My thoughts where answered shortly by Gibbs' call though.

"Special agent DiNozzo." Tony answered his ringing cell phone.

"…"

"R- right Boss… Is the director _dead_?" That's what really caught my attention. I looked up from my computer, where I had been searching all the people the Director came in contact with in the last six months. It was practically useless, but without anything to send down to Abby, there wasn't much we could do.

"…"

"Boss… wow. I'm so-" DiNozzo stopped talking mid sentence. I had the feeling Gibbs was reminding him never to say your sorry. Tony flipped his phone closed. "Let's go Ziva."

"I should call Ducky shouldn't I?" I said as he started walking towards the elevator.

"Yeah. You should."

Fifteen minutes later we where on the road, Tony insisted on driving, I don't know why, I drive much faster. Sure, I've been in a few accidents since coming to America. Maybe I shouldn't have told Tony how many. Actually I lied a bit when I told him. The second accident _was_ my fault, but only partially!

As we arrived at the crime scene, Gibbs was coming out the front door. Fornell was walking in front of him. I got out of the car, followed by Tony and yelled across her front yard to Gibbs, "Where's McGee?"

"Ambulance." Gibbs yelled back. One of us must've had a look on our face because Gibbs added, "He's fine the medics say it's just a concussion."

I nodded; Gibbs was now standing in front of Tony and Me. I was looking around. Director Sheppard owned a huge amount of property. It was gorgeous to, the house was old, but not run down. The land had one of those old fences surrounding it, the ones that don't use nails. The forest around it had been cleared, but lush, green trees still dotted the landscape.

"She inherited it." Gibbs commented.

Tony said, "You'd think she'd live in a less secluded area."

"It's not secluded, didn't you notice the other houses behind the trees while you where driving Tony? It's private, not secluded. There where houses everywhere if you would have looked hard enough" I corrected.

Gibbs nodded and said, "Are you guys going in? It's still a crime scene."

"On it, Boss." Tony said.

I walked up to the porch, as Tony swung the door open and said, "Ladies first." I smiled and walked in. The walls had on a Victorian style wallpaper, cream background with rose buds. A single table sat in the hall with a fake rose in a jar. I peered into the living room, just out of curiosity. It like the hallway, looked very Victorian, but a plasma T.V threw off the entire balance. The living room connected to a large dining room, and what looked like a kitchen behind that. "Nice. Director Sheppard didn't strike me as a T.V lady though." Tony commented. I hadn't even noticed him standing next to me.

"Yes well I wouldn't strike you as the type of person to know every word to 'I love rock and Roll'." I replied with a smile, and walked off towards the upstairs. DiNozzo stood there for a second before following me.

I looked back and forth in this hallway, it, like the entrance hallway, followed a Victorian theme. To my right I guessed was the bathroom, in front of me a guest bedroom, because it was small, and a house this big probably had a larger master bedroom. I found I was right when I saw a room painted in a modern deep red color. The director's entire bedroom was a deep red color, and not only did it not follow the Victorian theme, it looked like the bedroom of someone Tony might date, except there was no Tony in there.

The last room was where I assumed the Directors' body was because it wasn't in any of the other rooms. "You, okay Ziva?" Tony asked. He sounded genuinely concerned.

"Yes Tony, why wouldn't I be?" I sighed, "It's not like I particularly liked the woman. People much closer to me than her have died before." I know I was pushing his curiosity with that last line, but I like seeing him struggle to figure me out. Besides, it _was_ true.

We turned into the room. It to followed the Victorian theme, but a dell, flat screen computer and a wireless telephone where set up on the antique looking desk. Director Sheppard's body lay limp on the ground. Her eyes where shut, I had the feeling Gibbs shut them. The deep gash on her right cheek went from just above the eye to the end of her face. The gash wasn't the fatal wound though, the gunshot was, and it looked like it had just missed her heart. I snapped some pictures as Tony took measurements to sketch out the crime scene. That's when Ducky walked into the room.

"Oh, my." Ducky said. It wasn't the worst case he'd ever seen, I knew that, but he seemed surprised, "I was expecting just a bullet wound." Ducky said, Palmer looked a little off.

"How can someone _kill _the director of NCIS and get away with it?" he whispered, "That's scary, ya' know. I mean, that someone could just walk into the house of a leader of a government branch and shoot them."

"Would you like you know what's scarier Palmer?" Tony looked at him with an eyebrow raised, "She trusted whoever shot her." Palmer's face dropped with shock.

"How did you know?" He stuttered.

"By the blood spatter. She was looking at whoever it was, which means they didn't completely sneak up on her." Tony started explaining.

I added, "By the angle of the splatter we can assume they where up close to her. Which means she let them get close."

"Than what about the cut?" Palmer asked.

"That, Mr. Palmer, we will have to investigate. We need to find out whether the gash was given to her after she was shot, or before. My theory though, is after." Ducky said, getting up, "Now I'm going to go find Jethro and find out some more things. I believe, she may have been alive when he and McGee got here." Tony and I locked eyes for a second. We both knew, that if what ducky said was true, than things would be bad.

I knew we still had to dust for prints and explore other aspects of the scene, but curiosity got the best of me. I tried telling my self the American saying, 'Curiosity killed the rat' it was a useless effort though. I found myself thinking, _Poor Gibbs. What if she died the minute he walked in? That would be horrible._ I had been so engrossed in my thoughts that I hadn't even noticed I'd followed Ducky all the way through the house and back outside, all the while Tony was tailing behind me.

Gibbs was leaning against the van he and McGee used to drive out here. Ducky approached Gibbs and Tony and I hung back, but stayed close enough to hear what they where both saying.

"Jethro?" Ducky started, "Are you alright?"

Gibbs grunted something that sounded like yes.

"I don't believe that Jethro." Ducky slanted his eyes and used a firm voice. _I bet Ducky would've been great at interrogation when he was younger._ I found myself thinking.

"She _died_ in my arms, Ducky. She thought I was a fool for thinking she wouldn't die."

"I'm sorry Jethro, but I-"

"You where looking for time of death?" Gibbs sighed, "About 3:30, an hour before you got here."

"Thank you, Jethro."

"Anytime, Ducky."

Ducky walked back and signaled for some people to put the Director's body in a body bag. "I can't believe this happened, Ziva." Tony said, "Someone _killed_ Director Sheppard.

"Yeah… Wait, didn't Gibbs say the director was kidnapped, not killed." I said, remembering when he came back after his phone call.

"Yeah, he did. I wonder if they just wanted us to come soon." Tony said.

"What if they wanted _Gibbs_ to come not all of us, that's why they called him?" I half stated half asked.

"It's a possibility. We'd better finish with the crime scene. Gibbs is going to put us through hell trying to figure out who did this. The sooner we get done here, the sooner we can solve this case," Tony said and started to walk back towards the house, I could've sworn I heard him mumble under his breathe, "if that bastard Fornell doesn't steal the case."

As I walked back into Director Sheppard's computer room, I thought of something. I pulled the door shut a little. A small, thin line of blood was on the wall; it was barely noticeable, "Tony look. I don't think it's Director Sheppard's blood."

"Hmm. That's odd. So you think the Director fought back or something?" Tony pondered.

"Yeah, take a sample of that blood. I'll get finger prints off the inside of the doorknob." I mumbled. I had a theory that may play into Ducky's theory.

"Ziva, look at the cut in the rug." Tony said. I walked over. It was right next to where Tony put the case down that carried the evidence bags and things.

"What do you think it's from?"

"Whatever slashed the Director."

"I'd bet my life's saving on that. Look there's blood on that little part of the rug." I said, and grabbed scissors from the case. I cut away the piece of rug that had the blood on it and stuffed it in an evidence bag. It wasn't even a 1-inch X 1-inch piece of rug, but it carried vital information. Sometimes things like that amazed me, but only sometimes.


End file.
